Snapshot
The 350-kilometre Buxar-Bhagalpur expressway, as an extension to the Purvanchal Expressway, has an east-west alignment and will connect Buxar in west Bihar bordering Uttar Pradesh to Bhagalpur in east Bihar.
Bihar is set to follow the ‘expressway model’ created by Yogi Adityanath led government in Uttar Pradesh.
The state government of Bihar plans to extend Uttar Pradesh’s 341 km long Purvanchal Expressway to Bhagalpur, located near the eastern border of Bihar, via the state capital Patna.
The 350-kilometre Buxar-Bhagalpur expressway (see this map for the current route) as an extension to the Purvanchal Expressway has an east-west alignment and will connect Buxar in west Bihar bordering Uttar Pradesh to Bhagalpur in east Bihar.
State road construction minister Nitin Navin said that a central government team would visit the state to study the plan’s feasibility.
The consent to extend this expressway and other pending works on national highways passing through the state was reached in a meeting held between Nitin and Giridhar Armani, secretary of the union ministry of road transport and highways, reports The Times of India.
The 341 km long Purvanchal Expressway starts from village Chaudsarai, district Lucknow located on Lucknow-Sultanpur road (NH-731) and ends at village Hydaria situated on National Highway No. 31, 18 km east of UP-Bihar border.
The expressway is six-lane wide and can be expanded to eight-lane in future. Constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 22,500 crore, the Purvanchal Expressway benefited the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, especially the districts of Lucknow, Barabanki, Amethi, Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur.
If extended till Bhagalpur, located near the borders of Jharkhand and West Bengal, the greenfield expressway provides people of South Bihar, including those living in Patna, with better connectivity with less travel time to Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow and the National capital Delhi.